Courtesy photo Nashua's Mchael Broderick has been named as a co-general manager of the Nashua Silver Knights, along with current team finance director Victoria Cookson.

NASHUA – The Nashua Silver Knights have re-organized their front office, and it has a distinct local flavor.

Owner Drew Weber has decided that two general managers is better than one. He announced on Friday the hiring of Nashua’s Michael Broderick – a former candidate for mayor and the Board of Public Works – to serve as co-general manager with Victoria Cookson, who had served as the team’s Director of Finances the past season.

The team also hired another local resident, Cheryl McCardell, to serve as the front office coordinator. Weber said that would be a part-time position.

Weber, who dismissed long time minor league baseball executive Rick Muntean after one season as Knights GM, has gone in a different direction. Other than Cookson’s year in the Knights front office, there is definitely a lack of any baseball background.

Broderick, a native of Belmont, Mass.who has lived in Nashua since 1985, has an extensive background in communications sales, and was a former general manager of a communications company.

He only managed just less than 200 votes in his run for mayor back in 2015, but later ran for Board of Public Works and garnered about 2,500 votes but fell short. “I got a little more well known,” he said with a chuckle.

“I wanted someone with a sales background,” Weber said. “That’s what we were really lacking. That was important to me.

“Victoria didn’t know a thing (about running a baseball team) and she caught on. What it takes the most is common sense. … I was looking for someone with a sales background and common sense. Someone with good common sense can pick these things up.”

Broderick said he’s been to several Silver Knights games over the years.

“I know the Silver Knights, and I thought this was a great opportunity to get back into the community. I think it’s a young and growing franchise.

“I’ve worked on the development of a team (in the business sense), and I think we’ll develop a good team here (with Cookson).”

Broderick was interviewed extensively by Cookson and the Knights employee with all the baseball background, team field manager and VP of Player Personnel, B.J. Neverett, who Weber said was “a big, big help” in the process that included interviewing four candidates. Weber said that McCardell will also be involved in sales, mainly groups.

He felt it was important to divide up the duties among a few rather than have one GM.

“Instead of having one frazzled employee, we’ll have three coordinators, three excited employees. That’s a big difference.”

Cookson, Weber said, will no longer be handling the accounting end, which will free her up to help run the franchise in other ways. He wants more revenues and less spending, which he said was a problem a year ago.

“We’re going to farm that out and free her up from that,” he said. “She’ll be doing some selling. … She had a difficult year (in the Knights front office) and went through a lot. She knows what we need.”

Cookson has been manning the front office alone since October, and conducted a season ticket holder focus group meeting last month. Last year Weber didn’t name a new GM until close to mid-January.

“This is a big difference,” Weber said of a somewhat earlier hiring.

Weber said he is also going to take a more active role with the team.

“I know I’m going to be more involved than I was last year,” he said.

Meanwhile, Broderick officially starts his new job on Monday. But he’s already made his way around the community, letting people know he’s part of the Silver Knights organization.

“I was talking to a couple and told them what I was doing,” he said, “and they said, ‘Oh, my wife and I go there (to the Silver Knights games) all the time.

“‘Good’, I said. ‘I’ll see you there.’.”

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